BloodSweatSleepless Nights
by iizninja
Summary: This wasn't the boy she knew. The Puck swinging at her with such ferocity, such agility and strength that he knocked her down, couldn't be the same one who'd pulled a prank a few days earlier. She didn't like this Puck. He terrified her. Book 9 One-shot.


**Slight spoilers for book 9, but this story doesn't give away anything so you can feel free to read it even if you didn't get to The Council of Mirrors yet. For some reason, the scene where Puck first trains Sabrina struck me kind of hard. It seemed so... familiar. Then I found this story in the pile of oneshots I never bothered to post. I cleaned it up a bit, forced it to fit in the box called book 9 and, bada bing bada boom, this happened. Hope you enjoy!**

**I always forget to do the little disclaimers that authors like to get so creative with. I think you know that I don't own them, and I know that I don't own them, and the owners know that I don't own them. Apparently this is common knowledge. ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Sabrina's shoulder slammed into the ground. With a cry of pain she allowed herself a moment to writhe as the initial, painless shock started to wear off and needles seemed to shove their way through her arm. With a breathless grunt she jumped back up and pulled her sword into the ready position.

Puck faced her, blood trickling from his lip, his sword casually at his side. For once, the cocky smirk on his face was gone, leaving his green eyes clouded and bare of emotion.

"You aren't trying hard enough," he said blankly. Dropping to his knee, he swept his leg under hers making her fall on her back. The impact through off her coordination and her legs shook as she dragged herself back up to her feet.

She made a weak attempt at a flip and did a swipe at him. "I'm trying as hard as I can!"

He shook his head, "Try harder." He lunged at her, and she barley got her sword up in time to deflect him. Slice after slice, she narrowly missed his constant tries to knock her down; his sword was a blur that she only fended off by luck and every time their blades contacted a jarring tremor sent painful shocks through her arms. His elbow made contact with her collarbone, flinging her up against the blank white wall of the training room in the Hall of Wonders.

Daphne looked up from the magic spells she was working on. She shot a concerned look towards the two as Sabrina dragged herself, exhausted and drenched in sweat, back into the ready position. Daphne knew that Puck had good intentions, that he was only doing what he thought he had to, but at times like this he was terrifying. He moved with an agility and skill that no one could've guessed he possessed, and his training was relentless. Jake, Henry, and Veronica had long since avoided the two during their daily sessions and, no matter how much she loved working with magic, Daphne was starting to wish she could leave with them.

Sabrina landed one solid hit on Puck, successfully knocking him to the ground. Her lungs hurt with exertion and she had to get down on one knee to catch her breath. Her arms burned with the promise of sore muscles, and her legs were shaking badly from the exercise.

"I'm done," she told him, her chest heaving. "This is getting ridiculous."

"What do you mean you're _done_?" Puck demanded. "We haven't even gone an hour yet."

Sabrina pulled herself up to her feet and moved past him. "No, when I say I'm done I mean that I'm not doing this anymore at all." She picked up a discarded towel from the floor and took a long drink from her water bottle before going to leave the room.

Puck grabbed her by the arm and spun her towards him, "Are you crazy? You aren't ready yet."

She shook him off fiercely. "And what, exactly, am I supposed to be getting ready for? My parents have made it clear that I'm not going to be doing any hand to hand combat if I don't have to. You're stressing this training to much and I don't want to deal with it anymore!"

"What if you're captured? What if you have to deal with separate members of the hand and I'm not there to save you?"

Sabrina scoffed, not in the mood to fight, "I'm not some damsel in distress, Puck. I can take care of myself if you'd give me a chance!"

"Is that what you want?" Puck said. When she didn't seem ready to answer him he put a finger under her chin and made her make eye contact. "You want me to leave you by yourself?"

"I want you to realize that I'd be fine if you did."

He shook his head at her, his green eyes never leaving her blue ones, "And what if you weren't?"

She took a step back from him, moving away from the hard gaze he gave her. "I don't know, Puck," she said quietly. "I guess I'd be dead." She left the room quickly, ignoring the concerned look she got from Daphne, and went into her room with the hopes of clearing her mind.

~Sisters Grimm~

Puck's eyes narrowed after Sabrina. In a moment of pointless rage his voice bellowed as he spun and let his sword slip past his fingers, sending it flying towards the wall like a spear. That girl… she just didn't get it, did she?

He wasn't trying to be callous, but she needed to see things clearly. He was getting tired of having to come and save her all the time.

Puck sank to his knees, pulling at his hair and getting lost in his thoughts. Okay, he didn't say that as well as he should have. Actually, he was just getting plain tired. Maybe it was this growing thing, but he hadn't been on his game lately. That was mostly his fault but he didn't want her to have to suffer because of it. If he wasn't there, if something happened to him he needed to know that she'd be okay. It'd been keeping him up at night. The efforts for the war took a lot out of him and he was pretty much knocked out most of the time. Then he'd wake up with a guilty conscience; he wasn't watching over her the way he should've been.

One such night he'd gone and checked on her (before you start, it wasn't in a creepy way. He just had a bad feeling and needed to see her okay with his own eyes), and she'd been missing.

He'd felt something break inside of him, something that probably should've stayed in one piece. Maybe it was his sanity, maybe it was his spirit. His wings sprung out of his back and he'd raced around the Hall of Wonders, slamming open doors and going out of his mind with worry.

That wasn't like him at all, to worry about someone other than himself. The wise, older part of his being knew that meant he better not let something happen to her if she was changing him that much.

Then he'd found her. She was in the room with the council of Mirrors, watching her grandmother and tears slipping down her face. His first emotion had been relief –thank heavens she was safe, then anger –what was she doing out of her room?, then a bit of worry again –she seemed pretty upset. One of the mirror's had spotted him and gave him a small wink. Puck took the hint and headed back to his room.

Sleep was fitful after that. She needed to do something other than cry all by herself in a room. He got that this was hard, but he needed this war over. He needed to get a break. He couldn't worry about her forever, no matter how long he had to live. Sooner or later he'd burn out, and when that happened she needed to learn how to light her own fire.

Puck glanced back up at the door Sabrina had stormed out of. Heaving a sigh he pulled himself up, stretching his sore muscles. No matter how well he played it off, Grimm could pack a mean kick.

Purposefully ignoring the strange look he was getting from Daphne, Puck got out of the training room to find Sabrina slamming her gear on the table outside of the door. He saw her shoulders tense as he walked up behind her, and he could practically feel the scowl form on her face.

"If you want to beat me up some more, you're going to have to wait until I take a shower. I'd like to be clean when you kill me."

He sighed, "I wasn't trying to kill you."

She snorted, slamming her training gloves onto the table that stored weapons.

"Trust me, if I were trying to kill you I would've succeeded," he said. When she turned around and glared at him with her icy blue gaze he knew he'd said something wrong.

He tried again, "You know you need to be trained. If you're going to be leading people into battle-"

"I'm not! I don't plan on actually fighting, fish brain! Besides, I don't even think this job is meant for me. Maybe I don't want to lead anyone into battle!" She screamed at him. "Did you ever think about that?"

"Would it matter? You've got a responsibility to these people, it doesn't matter what you want."

Sabrina stopped, her eyes narrowing. He braced himself for one of her trademark punches, but she just scoffed blowing some of her hair out of her face. "You're being a jerk, you know that?"

Puck allowed himself to smile at her, "I know, but I'm being a truthful jerk."

"Is that why you've been grilling me," she raised an eyebrow, leaning back on the table with that annoying gleam in her eye that always made him lose his train of thought. "So we can win the war?"

He thought about telling her the truth, about telling her how much he worried constantly… "Yeah, that's why I'm doing it. For the war."

Sabrina rolled her neck, popping her knuckles. "Then I guess that makes since. I'll train with you if you promise to chill a little bit." She smiled, picking up her sword and jabbing him hard in the chest. "And I'm not holding back!"

Puck smiled widely at her. He wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

**If you're wondering if Puck was OOC in this... he was. I tried not to make it _too_ bad, but whenever you do an internal look in a semi-serious story of a character that is nothing but jokes it's pretty hard not to be. I hope you enjoyed this! I'd love it if you reviewed but, you know, do your thing. **

**PEACE! GOD BLESS! iizninja**


End file.
